The iPhone-Controlled Visiobike Will Take You For A Ride

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Zoom zoom! A Croatian company wants to put your butt onto a new kind of bike, a sort of electric/mechanical hybrid that uses battery assist to help you up the hills and includes an automatic transmission system that ensures you rarely have to use the battery.

Called the Visiobike, the $5,303 bike is made of carbon fiber and has a dock for your phone. Special software gives you a speedometer, transmission control and other treats as you scoot around town. It also has a camera in the seat for rear-facing views of traffic behind you in real time and for recording if someone rear-ends you.

Created by Marko Matenda, an entrepreneur and bike lover, the bike also has disc brakes, automatic safety lights, and a unique 3 minute recording feature that will show you what happened in an accident. Best of all, if the bike stops suddenly – and I mean really suddenly – a built-in emergency alarm will use your phone to contact the authorities. The feature, needless to say, could be a lifesaver.

I met Marko in Zagreb a few years back and he was just finishing up the final touches on a working prototype. Now that he’s ready to start shipping in December, he’s decided to go the crowdfunding route to get the word out. Basically this is a Bugatti of electric bikes, which is pretty crazy.

Again, it’s surprisingly expensive so you’re going to have to think long and hard before you drop the $5k+ to pick one of these up. However, it looks like a fascinating move forward for pedal-assist bikes and electric bikes in general.